Artist Jo C Willems’ It Just Takes Time featured in September show at Revelstoke Visual Arts Centre

It may seem unusual to show a piece of art that isn’t finished, but for Jo C Willems it’s a deliberate and intended part of her latest exhibition It Just Takes Time. Speaking with the me over the phone from her new home on Vancouver Island, Willems explains the show, which kicks off at the Revelstoke Visual Arts Centre on September 3, includes 17 completed pieces and an 18^th that is not finished.

“It’s deliberately not finished, it’s just the starting of a sketch. The art gallery did a video of me so I could show what it’s like to start a big drawing,” said Willems. “The show is not about the finished pieces, the show is about the experience. The more you walk into the pieces, the more you become aware of time, even me … even though I drew them, I stand there and I travel the journey through them.”

A well-known artist in Revelstoke, Willems works in several mediums including gouache, watercolour, graphite and pencil. She’ll often work with a particular medium for several years and then switch to something different, saying it’s a way to refresh herself.

“There’s a battle in me as to whether I’m a painter or someone who works in black and white because I love both. Switching back and forth teachers me more and more about how to be an artist.”

Jo C Willems spent four years working on the pieces for It Just Takes Time. Photo: Revelstoke Visual Arts Centre

For It Just Takes Time, Willems worked with 2b, 4b and 6b pencil, drawing on 100% cotton paper 50 inches wide, each piece a a different length. Each of the pieces took an incredible amount of time to complete, and Willems said the later pieces took longer. In total, Willems spent four years working on the pieces for the show.

“One of the last ones I did, it took me close to six months to do it. I started in the fall and didn’t finish until spring. It took so much detail and concentration. Drawing isn’t just about the pencil on paper. A lot of it is about contemplating the composition and how the viewer moves through, it’s about relationships in drawing. For me a drawing is not a drawing, it’s a journey and if it isn’t a journey it doesn’t work for me,” Willems said.

Asked why she chose the title It Just Takes Time, Willems said the exhibition is more about meditation and surrendering to time. A mountain biker and trail runner, Willems has completed a number of long distance hikes, the longest one 5,000 kilometers.

“One of the things that sort of journey does is it teaches you that travelling just takes time. There’s a gentle surrendering that comes from that. Each of these drawings took the same time as a long distance hike. When you do such a journey, whether it be a drawing or a walk it becomes a parenthesis inside your life, a pause where you take an extraction. Each piece is about time and the experience of time.”

 The Revelstoke Visual Arts Centre is hosting a gallery exhibition opening of It Just Takes Time, along with Susan Lind’s Close to My Heart and Kim Dollar’s Unconscious Awakening on Thursday, September 3 from 12 p.m. to 8 p.m. There is also a kids crafts session from 12 p.m. to 4 p.m., an outdoor art market from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. and garden tours.

Due to COVID-19 physical distancing requirements guests will need to pre-purchase tickets online for a $5 donation. Complete details on tickets can be found here.